Urgent humanitarian needs for Iraqi IDPs
Astrid Sehl, NRC
Website: http://www.nrc.no
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Internally displaced in Iraq are neglected
Astrid Sehl, NRC
Astrid Sehl, NRC
1,9 million internally displaced Iraqis face both protection and humanitarian needs. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) calls on the Iraqi authorities, international community and UN to increase the assistance and provide better security for the population to prevent further displacement.
2 million Iraqis have fled the country. A new report by NRC's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) raises concern on the internally displaced people (IDPs) in Iraq, who are neglected by both the Iraqi authorities and the international community. Since February 2006, 727,000 persons have been displaced due to both targeted and indiscriminate acts of violence. 70 per cent are women and children.
- Displaced people report that a wide range of needs are not met, such as shelter, food, clean water and employment opportunities. NRC calls for increasing support to local authorities and host communities who assist internally displaced people, says Secretary General Tomas C. Archer.
NRC IDMC welcomes the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's recent acknowledgement of the humanitarian crisis inside Iraq.
- NRC calls on the international community to use the opportunity during the UNHCR ministerial-level conference on Iraq in April, to in particular highlight the situation for internally displaced people. Humanitarian organizations must be given access to assist the displaced and funding needs to be redirected towards emergency assistance, Archer says.
Most newly displaced people report that they were forced to flee because of religious or sectarian affiliation. In the last months, new tactics have emerged to deliberately intimidate people into fleeing, such as the burning of homes.
In the report, NRC IDMC raises concern with ongoing sectarian violence in Baghdad and surrounding areas in particular. Also, NRC IDMC highlights the situation of thousands of Iraqis who continue to be displaced by military operations, in which are largely unreported by the media. Many of them have been displaced repeatedly.
Read the report here: www.internal-displacement.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
